The Cayde Effect
by JaxiusTharn
Summary: Okay so lets give a rundown of whats going on. 1: I'm dead. 2: I'm in some weird new universe. 3: There's supposed to be no Darkness but that squid ship looks pretty evil to me. At least I got a new gun on my hip and Sundance at my side.
1. Prologue Death and the Three

"How's my hair?" Cayde asked as he could feel his systems shutting down, the Hunter, in front of him, a kid by the name Ray had dropped his rifle and was on his knees. "Speechless. Typical." Cayde began coughing as he felt more systems die. He saw Ray's ghost Oakley in front of him trying to get a scan.

"Oh no." The poor ghost sounded on the verge of panicking. "There's nothing I can.. I'm sorry." Cayde knew it wasn't Oakley's fault. He knew his time was coming soon.

"Listen, kid. This… this ain't on you." Ray grabbed his hand and vanished his helmet, a scar ran across the hunter's left eye as tears formed for his friend. Cayde could feel his systems shut down faster and faster. "This… is what I get for… for playing nice. You tell Zavala and Ikora… the Vanguard… is the best bet... I ever… Lost." Cayde felt the rest of his systems shut down and he felt himself begin to drift and then, stop?

Ray never noticed as they appeared from the portal, how could he as they were outside time and space itself. The three individuals that walked up to the fallen Exo.

"What a waste." The first one said as he crossed his arms only to be slapped by the Ghost next to him causing him to rub his bearded cheek.

"Was that necessary Osiris?" Sagira asked the old Warlock.

"It may have been, it may not have been." This response came from the female Exo standing next to them. "We both know that he has to go."

"But who said we were going to allow it Elsie." Osiris responded as he pulled several cubes out of one of his many pouches and Elsie Bray began assembling a small piece of tech, Sagira flew through the hole and collected the fragments that made up Sundance, Cayde's ghost. Sagira flew back over, fallen Ghost with her.

"I have Sundance, what is the plan exactly?" Sagira asked before Elsie fired off the contraption she had built, reconstructing Sundance but leaving the little Ghost offline. Osiris finished tinkering with his cubes and clapped them together. Causing a duplicate of Cayde to appear along with a duplicate of Sundance's fragments. Osiris picked up the fragments before handing them to Sagira. "This is wrong on so many levels." Sagira told her guardian as she transmatted each piece of the duplicate Sundance exactly where the original was.

"I know old friend but this is how it has to be." Osiris placed the repaired Sundance on the torso of the original Cayde as he looked to Elsie. If there was a crime that could be committed against the Traveler in any way, then this would be up there next to a human joining the darkness of their own free will. Elsie pulled out a vial she had retrieved from Io, a vial of pure light. And poured it on Sundance's core. The three waited, and two grinned as they saw Sundance reactivate.

"Do you have the other items?" Elsie asked as Osiris and Sagira nodded. Osiris crouched down and pulled out a letter before folding it and putting it in Cayde's pocket. Sagira transmatted the hand Cannon she was told to retrieve. Trust appeared in Osiris's hand as he slid it into Cayde's holster before he stood up. The three looked at the exo as he lay peacefully, unaware of what was happening around him. Osiris pulled out his cubes again and Elsie pulled out another piece of technology, the two of them working together they looked at each other before Osiris hit the cubes together and a portal opened, Elsie's tech also activated as the portal changed from an icy blue to a soothing purple.

"Are you sure this is a good plan." Elsie and Osiris looked back at Sagira as she glanced between the two. "He can never come back from this."

"I know." Osiris responded. "But he can't die yet." Osiris and Elsie moved the body of Cayde 6 to the portal while Sagira moved the duplicate back over where the original was.

"Good luck hunter." Elsie said as she pushed Cayde through followed by Sundance. "You'll need it." Osiris pulled out his cubes again and rearranged them to open up another portal, which the three left through. Time loosened as Ray looked over the body of Cayde, wholly unaware that the real Cayde was far from the threat of the Darkness. And entering a new battlefield.


	2. Chapter 1 Awakening

_Wow. I mean wow, I am shocked at all the reviews and pleased, I would like to say a few things before we begin though. First off, Cayde WILL NOT I repeat WILL NOT be a human, I had no plans of making him human AT ALL, so you can calm down on that part because Cayde WILL remain an Exo. To JAKEkenstein, sorry but it is always going to be Joker and EDI._

 **Chapter One: Awakening**

"Cayde! Wake up you idiot." A soft and familiar voice called out.

"Allright Sundance, give me a minute." Cayde's optics shot open as he realized what he just said and looked to see a familiar white and orange ghost hovering above him. "Sundance? What, how… you're dead. Pirrha shot you…." Cayde grabbed his helm as images flew through his mind. The Prison, Petra, Ray, Sundance, Uldren… "That son of a bitch." Cayde hissed as he looked over at Sundance and stood up before looking around, the area surrounding them was clearly a farmland of some sort with mountains and trees springing up all around them the sky though didn't look peaceful at all, in fact it was an angry red. "Okay Sundance, where are we?"

"I don't know."

"Come again?"

"I don't know Cayde, this system isn't earth, we're not in the reef and it doesn't register on any of the pre-collapse maps in my systems, furthermore I am detecting a hive mind intelligence nearby and some sort of command unit along with…" Sundance paused, if her core could glow brighter, then it most certainly would have. "Humans."  
"Okay now I know I misheard you."

"No Cayde there are humans here, and there being attacked."

"Now."

"Yes NOW!"

"Okay, new plan. We rescue the humans, kill the attackers, and find a way home, we can figure out how we came back to life later. Cayde checked his holster finding a familiar revolver shaped hand cannon that belonged to a former companion of his. "Why do I have Trust?"

"It probably has to do with the letter in your pocket." Because of her connection to Cayde, Sundance knew about everything that Cayde had in his pockets and inventory, and that letter wasn't one of them before. Cayde quickly searched his trousers and pulled a piece of parchment with a yellow sun inside of an eye.

"Osiris? What does he have to do with this?" Cayde wiped out his knife and broke the seal before reading its contents.

 _Cayde, there is no easy way for me to say this but at the time of your reading this letter you will have returned once more from death. Yes you died, I saw the funeral in my visions and it truly was a somber occasion. You will be avenged though, I've seen Petra and Ray slay Uldren and the rest of the Scorn Barons. You are probably wondering where you are and how Sundance is alive. To make this statement short I will be blunt. Elsie and I both knew that you couldn't remain alive and in our home reality at the same time, I have peered into the infinite forest and found you a new reality where you can live. Sundance is returned to you along with the hand cannon Trust (Sagira wasn't to pleased about stealing from the Drifter.). This reality Cayde, it will face a darkness, one unlike I have seen before, but I have also seen the heroes that will emerge from this darkness. Aid them, find the Shepard._

 _Osiris_

"So Osiris sent us here and repaired us." Was all Sundance could say. Cayde looked up from the letter and pocketed it.

"Yeah, it looks like it, that hive mind, where is it?" A waypoint appeared in Cayde's vision

"That is also where the humans that are being attacked are."

"Noted." Cayde replied as he began sprinting in the direction of the waypoint as he leapt and bounded over each and every obstacle in the way before finally noticing a settlement of square metallic buildings up ahead. Cayde hopped down from the cliff he was on to the top of a building where he noticed two vex like creatures in front of him chasing a woman in white and pink armor as she was shooting back at them. The woman tripped and dropped her rifle as she fell, the two vex look-alikes swarming close and prepping their weapons. "Time for introductions." Cayde said as he leapt down from the cliff and slid down the side, pushing himself off and spun in the air before landing between the drones and the woman.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams knew that Geth had attacked Eden Prime, she knew her unit was dead, she knew she would die but not before killing as many of these bastards as she could, then it appeared. The individual was wearing some sort of vest-like tunic, trousers, and metal boots with gloves, to top it off the stranger was wearing a tattered cape and hood with a calm and laid back posture like it was some sort of space cowboy.

"Okay boys, back away right now." The stranger had and odd voice with a metallic ting to it, the Geth seemed confused for a second before they raised their weapons and the stranger pulled out a revolver. An honest to god revolver. And proceed to open fire on the two geth, shooting from the hip and fanning the hammer, putting a bullet in each of their heads. Ashley felt her jaw drop as the stranger spun his revolver before he holstered it and turned….

"Jesus Fucking Christ! What are you!" Ashley was a devout believer and would never take the name of the lord in vain… except for this occasion, the stranger was a synthetic of some sort with a blue and tan helm, bright blue optics looked back at her as he smiled. He fucking smiled.

"Hello to you to." The synthetic replied as it held out a hand. "You wouldn't happen to know what these Vex pretenders are here for would you?" Ashley pulled out her pistol and pointed it at the synthetic only for a small cube like thing to appear.

"Cayde I found the commander of these things, he's heading to a starport warehouse."

"Noted, well, sorry to cut this short but I gotta run." The synthetic turned and began sprinting while Ashley opened fire on it, the thing seemed to avoid all her shots as he jumped and spun like a gymnast.

"Well that was rude of her." Cayde told Sundance as he was sprinting towards the starport.

"I know, so uncivilized." Sundance replied as Cayde fired off several more shots from Trust, hitting the vex wannabe's in front of them.

"Any idea why she shot at us?"

"I don't know, starport warehouse in 50 meters." Cayde jumped onto the nearby building shooting several more vex look-alikes before jumping once more on top of a hill.

"Allright, let's see what we're dealing with." Cayde crouched down and looked over at the warehouse to see a Cabal Psion, or something that looked like a Psion. It was wearing blue and grey armor, and had a grey prosthetic arm, it was moving around the starport as it was giving out orders to the vex look alikes down below.

"Sundance, can you see if we can hear what he's saying?"

"On it, aaaaannnndd done. That was fast."

" _Move those charges to the next platform and get the beacon to the extraction point, Sovereign wants that thing taken or turned to rubble."_ The Psion ordered.

" _Yes Herald."_ the Vex replied as they began placing several bombs onto a tram and a stone pillar followed last before the tram was sent off.

"Cayde, I was able to get a scan of those explosives, they're nukes." Cayde's head shot up when he heard that. Running the numbers through his head the exo came to a horrifying conclusion.

"If those go off…"

"This colony will cease to exist." Sundance finished. "I'm picking up a second motion." Cayde watched as another Psion approached the warehouse and readied Trust. This new Psion screamed soldier as he approached in a crouch and was entering cover whenever he could. Unlike the other Psion, this one was wearing black and red armor along with white face paint.

"Sundance?"

"Still connected, don't worry." Cayde crouched and readied Trust as he listened in.

" _Saren"_ This came from the black armored Psion, he sounded surprised to see this one.

" _Nihlus"_ the tone the grey armored one used made it sound like this Saren didn't seem pleased to see Nihlus.

" _This isn't your mission Saren. What are you doing here?"_ Cayde watched as Saren approached Nihlus as the other Psion let his guard down

" _The Council thought you could use some help on this one."_ Saren replied as he stepped behind Nihlus.

" _I wasn't expecting to find the geth here, the situation's bad."_ Nihlus replied as he sweeped in front of him. Cayde watched as Saren reached for something at his side.

" _Don't worry, I got it under control."_ Saren raised a pistol to the back of Nihlus head. And Cayde pulled the trigger.

Nihlus turned as he heard the gunfire to see his mentor holding a jarred hand and a pistol on the ground with a hole in it. Eyes widening as he realized what his old was about to do Nihlus raised his rifle as Saren used a form of biotics he had never seen before to fling him back and into the heavy platform corner. CRACK! Nihlus screamed in pain as his legs failed to move, to react, to even twitch as he dropped to the ground and looked towards Saren as he approached him, a new pistol in hand.

"What is the first thing I taught you Nihlus. Always watch your back." Saren readied his pistol as another shot rang out, colliding with his armor. Saren turned to see an unknown Geth sitting on a crate and swinging their heels and twirling a knife. "Geth unit, identify yourself."

"Nah." The Geth replied as it gave a cheeky grin towards Saren as it sheathed the knife.

"Geth unit, override code Alpha Sigma Pegasus Whiskey five three seven one four."

The Geth blinked before laughing at him, by now Saren was furious.

"Geth unit, obey your master!" He shouted.

"I don't think so." Saren blinked and the unknown Geth slid off his seat and unholstered a revolver before it began spinning it. "You see, I'm not a geth. I'm guessing that those are the bots I've been shooting up. Also you tried to shoot him in the back of the head." The Geth pointed towards Nihlus with his revolver. "So Saren you can stand down and let me bring you in, or I can put a bullet in your head." He tapped the revolver to his chin. "On second thought I'll just put a bullet in you and call it a day." Cayde continued as he pointed Trust at Saren and fired, the gunpowder and light infused chemical mixture within every guardian weapon ignited sending the round flying at the Psion. Saren rolled out of the way of the bullet and the following shots from Cayde and fired off several rounds from his pistol, the metal shards the size of sand grains being propelled out of his pistol at the speed of light thanks to the mass effect field generator within the pistol. Cayde leapt into the air, one of Sarens rounds colliding with his left arm and making a slight bore in the metal as he landed behind cover. Cayde looked at the bore in his frame before glaring at Saren.

"Okay. now I'm pissed." Cayde focused his light into the form of a knife before throwing the burning blade at Saren, the knife colliding with the Turian and causing Saren to scream as the solar infused blade burned him. The Turian ripped out the knife from his shoulder causing it to dissolve into light as he accessed his implant, pulling the biotic power from the ezzo nodes in his body and launched a biotic throw at Cayde. Cayde looked on as the red energy flew towards him.

"Shit." The biotic energy slammed into him causing him to fly back and through the crates as they shattered on impact with his frame, Trust falling out of his hand as he collided with the warehouse and fell to the ground. Saren smirked as he walked towards the tram and activated it, sending him towards the extraction point.

"Cayde." The exo shook his head as he was trying to sleep. "Cayde!" Seriously. Someone really wanted him to wake up. "CAYDE 6! GET UP NOW!" Cayde's optics onlined to see Sundance hovering overhead.

"Ow, that hurt." Cayde pushed himself up causing the pieces of crates lying on him to fall to the ground, Sundance vanishing as he did so. "How long was I out?"

"One minute and forty five seconds, long enough for that individual to escape."

"Any idea where he's going?"

"He took a tram." Cayde looked to his right to see a human crouched behind the crates, Trust in his hands as he shakily pointed it at Cayde causing the Exo to frown.

"Kid, hand me my gun." The human just cocked back the hammer.

"Give him his weapon." The two turned to see the wounded Psion lying on the ground, his legs splayed out. "He needs it."

"How can you say that, it's a Geth!"

"Exo." The two turned towards Cayde.

"I'm an Exo, but if you want to know what I am." Cayde allowed solar light to flare around him, he peeked at his arm, the frame repaired. "I am a Guardian." Cayde rushed forward and faster than Powell could blink Cayde disarmed him and holstered Trust before turning to Nihlus.

"Why did Saren try to kill you?"

"I don't know, he was my mentor and friend. He was the one who trained me to be a Spectre."

"You're a Spectre!" Powell seemed to panic as his eyebrows practically shot off his head.

"I am, though I get the feeling my career just ended." Nihlus looked at his legs. Cayde crouched down and called Sundance forward.

"What do you got for me buddy?" Sundance scanned Nihlus and looked through the data, Turian and human looking on in awe at the small object that turned back to Cayde.

"His lumbar bones are broken from the impact, his spinal cord is frayed and not broken which is the cause of his paralysis, along with that he has several cracked ribs, a hairline skull fracture and a minor contusion, I'd say the adrenalin is the only reason he's coherent enough to talk to us.

"Is that an AI?" Nihlus asked. Sundance spun back and Nihlus wasn't sure why but he could tell it was angry.

"I am a Ghost, not an AI. I'm willing to let that go because of your injuries." Sundance paused before looking at the path. "We have incoming Cayde."

"Are they these Geth bots." Cayde asked as he flicked Trust forward and began sliding in new rounds.

"No, they're coming up as humans." Cayde looked to see three individuals enter the spaceport. The first two were wearing black armor, the woman with black armor at the center being their obvious leader, the second in black armor wasn't wearing a helmet like the woman but had a holographic headset instead and the third was…..

"Fuck me." Cayde said as he saw the brunette in white and pink armor from earlier point her weapon at him.

"This is the Synthetic I told you about Commander." A look of fury crossed her face

"The Space cowboy?" The woman in the center asked causing Cayde to laugh.

"Space Cowboy, that's a new one." Cayde's laughter then stopped immediately as the woman removed her helmet. Blood red hair, an icy blue right eye, and an eyepatch over the left eye. Her skin was no longer blue but he recognized her anywhere.

"Petra? Petra Venj?" The woman froze as her eye widened. Cayde did miss those eyes. He also missed the EMP disk that Commander Petra Shepard, formerly Venj slapped onto his frame causing him to crash to the ground unconscious as his systems shut down once more.

"Commander?" Petra looked over at Kaiden, one of her oldest friends since she joined the Alliance. And one of the few who knew her real last name. "How did it know you."

"I don't know Kaiden. I don't know." Petra raced over to check on Nihlus before calling in an extraction for him.

"Take the Exo." Nihlus ordered.

"Nihlus you need to rest." The Turian grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.

"Take him." Petra amended her orders telling the Normandy to pick both of them up as Kaiden and Ashley called a tram for them to finish their mission.


End file.
